Inspirational Weekly Parsha Insights and anecdotes of Rabbi Schwartz and his never dull family as they acclimate and absorb into their new home in Karmiel Israel, having made Aliyah- August 2010

Karmiel

Our view of the Galile

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Poli-Si- Behar 2016 5776

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

May
20th 2016 -Volume 6, Issue 33 11h Iyar 5776

Parshat Behar

Poli -Si

Ok it’s time for some political science here in our weekly E-Mail.
The elections are coming up. There are two distinct parties. I hate all three
candidates that are left in the field. See in Israel it’s not as much of a
problem. I hate all the candidates here as well. But here we vote for a party.
I like parties. They’re fun. So I pick the party that best represents my
ideology and I’m done. I pretend to turn a blind eye to the crooks and con
artists and self-interested politicians that ultimately distort and subvert the
message and ideology of their parties. Some to get a chance at getting photo-op
on the Rose Garden with whatever sitting president, some for the chance at an
(ig) Nobel Peace Prize, and some just to get extra money, honor, or a good
shidduch for their children and the fawning of some big Rabbis. I ignore the
realities of how these people play out. After-all they’ll probably end up in
jail anyways soon. It’s where all good Israeli politicians end up eventually.
We have a lot of empty space in our prisons since it seems we’re letting all
out all the terrorists and murderers anyways. So we might as well put our
prisons to good use and make them a retirement center for aging crooked
politicians. That way we can make room for the aspiring new generation of them.
And like I said I like parties.

But American politics are different. You vote for the president. I
have bitten my tongue in the past and voted for people I did not like. But this
year I’m having a hard time even doing that. A megalomaniac nut- job, and possible misogynistic racist, a
lying Arab loving, Arafat-kissing (sorry I can’t get that image out of my mind)
power hungry, stilted wife who has stuck with her cheating husband merely to
further her own career and blindly driven ambition or a socialist religiously
clueless Jew who is bound to sell out his own people and country just to prove
what a goy he can be. Sigh…It’s not even a question of the lesser of which
evil. Rather it is which one do I think will pretty much bring the end to that
once great country America sooner. Like the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks,
Romans, French, Russians and Turks before them, the great world empire is
pretty much getting ready to wrap up shop. It will be interesting to see if the
Jewish people and the State of Israel will rise up to fill that void that keeps
opening up for us to fill. I’m not too hopeful that we can do it on our own. I
am even more hopeful that Mashiach will come and help us get our act together.
It would really stink for all those stubborn American Jews to head off to
Canada or even China rather than to come home and make it happen. But hey we’ve
done stupider things before in our history.

So let’s talk political science for a minute or two. Let’s pretend
that in America you could vote for the party. Republican or Democrat which
platform is more in line with our Torah’s values? Now the concept of ‘more’ in
line is really an oxymoron your either in line or you’re not in line. Your
either driving in your lane or your out of your lane. There’s really not much
room for grey in the incredible clear system that the Torah describes. And
being that the Torah is based on the notion of God and religion defining our
system of governance, the American system which is based on the principle of
separation of ‘church and State” is already out of line. Don’t get me wrong,
the Torah is all for keeping the church out of State and in truth out of this
world as well. It is in fact quite clearly fundamentally premised on really
getting rid of all the false ‘religious’ systems and fallacies out
there. We may not be obligated to wipe them out or kill them-certainly not
outside of Israel and certainly not today without the benefit of a King, a
court system or in our period of Exile. But we are unquestionably meant to
decry the falsehood and the desecration of Hashem’s name that is being
distorted by every other faith system. We were put on this earth and our chosen
nation status is that we are meant to teach and inspire the world with our
ultimate truth, the revelation we alone received on Mt. Sinai. So a system that
is based on the premise that religion and Judaism should not play a role in
defining the principles of how it is run is already fundamentally flawed.

At the same time the concept of freedom of religion worked out
pretty well for the Jewish people. Most places that we have been in our long
exile, that had a state based religion ended up killing or expelling us a lot
quicker. The freedoms that Jews have had in the US of A are pretty historic and
I certainly have a lot of love and patriotism for my birth country and
appreciation for it serving as a fairly comfortable resting place for my people
until we get to where we need to. Which is why it saddens me somewhat to seeing
them go down the tubes so quickly. But hey, let’s not fool ourselves. Let’s not
forget our history. 200 years or so is not a bad run for us to hang out in a
place.

But I keep digressing. So let’s take the platforms. Conservatism
which is pretty much the Republican platform(-although I know that some
tea-party and real political scientists may rightfully disagree, but I’m try to
keep this simple. There are after-all jokes to get to at the bottom of this
E-mail-) is defined by that great source of all wisdom, Wikipedia, as being

“a broad system of political beliefs that
is characterized by respect for American traditions, anti-communism, advocacy
of American exceptionalism and a defense of Western culture from perceived
threats posed by creeping socialism, moral relativism, multiculturalism, and
liberal internationalism. Conservatives support capitalism and free market.
American conservatives usually place individual liberty as the fundamental
trait of democracy, which contrasts with liberals, who generally place a
greater value on social equality and social justice for minorities, and the
welfare state, and emphasize the need for state intervention to achieve these
goals”

OK let’s take this apart. I don’t know what ‘American traditions’
are. I am a fan of apple pie and I respect a good one. I’m not a
baseball fan though, although my son is, yet I don’t know if that is something
I should respect. Just because a guy could hit a ball with a stick very far and
gets paid millions to do it doesn’t mean he should get respect. Although it is
pretty impressive that he is able to make that kind of money for seemingly not
much intellectual accomplishment. I certainly don’t respect Chevrolet, let’s
not fool ourselves the Japanese do the car thing better.

But moving on. I don’t like communists- they killed Jews, although
I don’t think it’s a threat anytime soon. ‘American exceptionalism’-hey why not?
Not that I think it’s exceptional in all areas but it’s always a good thing to
praise the country that’s good to you. ‘Defending western culture from the perceived
threats’ is kind of an obtuse statement. Yes there are serious threats facing
the US, and yes I think that they should be defended against; although I don’t
know if I would include ‘multiculturalism’ as one of them. Sadly a country that
won’t allow a Torah perspective to run and direct its defense though is ill
equipped to do so. And I’ve never been a fan of ill equipped defenses.
Generally that just delays the inevitable defeat.

‘Liberty’ is a good thing-in fact that’s what this week’s Torah portion
is about. But as we will see, a Jewish perspective of individual liberty not
the fundamental trait of our Torah governance, but rather as a part of the
greater picture of communal responsibility and commitment to our religious
values. Additionally our values certainly believe- and even at the expense of
individual liberty- in the notions of social justice, welfare state and even
state and government intervention. So I’m pretty sure I’m not a Republican,
although like I said I do like apple pie.

Let’s take the next team, the Democrats, a party that certainly
traditionally always had the Jewish vote. It’s kind of hard to define their
platform historically as they’ve changed a lot over the years. After all they
were the ones that opposed the abolition of slavery and it was Eisenhower a Republican
that pushed through the Civil rights act that was opposed for years by LBJ the
Democrat (who did eventually vote for it) and it passed with a much greater
Republican support then Democratic. Economically as well the Democrats were
against the Reconstructionist efforts of the Republicans government
intervention after the civil war and were opposed to ‘Big government’ until WWI
and FDR’s New Deal. So it’s hard to pin them down. But let’s for a moment take
a look at the new current wave of Social Democracy that Bernie is touting and I
suspect that Hillary is in line with as well. Again to the Wikipedia Rebbe

‘Social democracy is a political ideology
that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice
within the framework of a capitalist economy, and a policy regime involving
collective bargaining arrangements, a commitment to representative democracy,
measures for income redistribution, regulation of the economy in the general
interest and welfare state provisions. Modern social democracy is characterized
by a commitment to policies aimed at curbing inequality, oppression of
underprivileged groups, and poverty; including support for universally
accessible public services like care for the elderly, child care, education,
health care and workers' compensation.’

Now how does this sound to you? I like the framework of capitalism
part, as we all know that communism and the removal of the profit incentive
doesn’t work. I am also a fan of curbing inequality, oppression and
poverty-particularly my own. If Social democrats wanna help me or my synagogue
out we’re here for you. Certainly as well the premise of income redistribution
and correcting income inequality are also not necessarily foreign concepts to a
Torah perspective. We are the ones that invented the concepts of the tithing
system, of leaving portions of ones field for the needy, of creating
institutions of learning and free education for all. The torah in fact and our
sages felt the need to legislate all of these things. We can’t trust people to
be good and generous on their own. So what can be wrong with a system like
this?

I think my problem and perhaps the Torah’s problem is with the
social aspect of this engineering. For a man to limit and take money from the
rich to disburse to the poor is stealing. For a government, particularly if it
is based on the will and ‘revolution of the people’ to do so as well is a
recipe for disaster. Remember the French Revolution? The communist Revolution?
The peasants, the proletariat, the plebes never really became a better society the
just replaced the bourgeois they overthrew.

But leave history aside, the system won’t work. For if I work hard
and make it and this guy is just sitting on his laurels and waiting lazily for
his handout and he receives all of the benefits that I do, what motivation is
there for someone to innovate, to work harder, to produce to get a job, to
change the world and achieve the fulfillment of his Divine mandate. I think it
is quite telling that despite the fact that Sweden and Denmark have half the
poverty rate as the United States does, yet their unemployment rate is higher
and they certainly are not even close to the US or any capitalist country in
terms of innovation, productivity and even education.

The truth is this thing about equality also troubles me. On one
hand we certainly believe that all individuals are equal before the eyes of our
Creator, after all we are His kids. We brought that notion to the world. Yet,
unlike the Social Democrats we believe there are certainly different roles and
limitations that each of has and are meant to play. Roles that prohibit some
people from doing things that others can. Roles that are different because of
gender, because of lineage, roles that are even different because of
deformities and disabilities. It doesn’t mean we’re not equal. It doesn’t mean
we are less special. It means that we are just different and our Creator has
designed unique roles for each of us to achieve our fullest potential. We each
have our own purpose that we are meant to realize, our own piece of fixing the
world that only we can do, our won portion in the world to come and our own
portion in the Torah. We each have our own bathrooms as well- sorry I couldn’t
resist and this E-mail is getting too long without a joke-That appreciation of
our differences and our different roles and our responsibilities is what I
think is lacking in their perspective and that will ultimately serve as the
reason why their system is doomed to failure.

But even more than that troubles with me. I don’t trust people
that read the New York Times. I don’t trust people that look at others as
morally inferior because I don’t buy into their self-developed visions of what
morality is. This is especially true if their morality for the most part is premised
on the lack of recognition of God, His Hand in all that runs in this world, and
the superior notion that those morally elite are more qualified to engineer
society then us primitive God-believing and fearing citizens. When in fact
socialist parties and the generally atheistic or at least agnostic leadership
has usually turned out to be just as, if not more corrupt and morally bankrupt
not only in their personal lives but in their positions of power as the rest of
their counterparts. The fact that most of them are so double standard and so
removed from the reality of what Israel is facing and the lies of the UN, the
Arab world and the threat that fundamental radical Islam poses to the world
also prevents me from ever considering to give them my vote.

So I’m stuck. I look at this week’s Torah portion and it’s first
words that introduce the laws of the Sabbatical year; that year which even
Social Democrats could never come up with. When every single field owner opens
up his field for an entire year for anyone to come and take what they want,
that every loan, debt and mortgage that I have becomes null and void, and I
understand what the Torah is telling me in 2016.

“And Hashem spoke to Moshe on Mt. Sinai
saying”

The famous Rashi on this verse says

“What does Shemitta/ the Sabbatical
year have to do with Sinai weren’t all the commandments said on Sinai? -rather
it is to teach you that just as Shemitta and its laws and its fine details were
given on Sinai so to all the laws were.”

I am even more astounded by the Torah’s command that in the 50th-
Yovel/Jubilee year besides the regular laws of Shemitta any land
I purchased returns to its original owners. I have to move out of my rightfully
purchase dhouse that I have been living in for the past 49 years and hand it
over to that shlub down the block who
can’t even take care of his own field. Huh? Why? Because I understand that the
Land is Hashem’s to decide. Not mine. The premise for any law, any ‘social
engineering’ can only work because Hashem who gave us this land directs us how
to use it. It needs the God component, otherwise it can’t and won’t work.

I read the various incredible laws that are so anti-democratic and
anti-republican that the Torah talks about how one should preferably do
business with a fellow Jew, rather than who is not Jewish, as the verse says

“When you make a sale to your fellow or
when you buy from the hand of your fellow, do not victimize your brother”

Our sages derive that this is a mitzva to preferably do business
with a Jew, your brother. This would rightfully be considered discriminatory
and there is no nation that has ever suffered more from that type of
discrimination then the Jewish people historically. Yet the Torah thus
commands. It was given on Sinai. It is from the Creator and Father of all
mankind that loves all of His children equally and wishes to build a unique
special bond between His chosen children that are meant to represent Him to the
rest of the world. Think of it as a Divine preferred shoppers only club.
Discriminatory? You tell me.

These same club members are obligated to bail out their brother.
Obligated! They are prohibited from charging them interest for any loan that
they give them. Prohibited! They are obligated to find a job for the unemployed
and when they can’t afford to pay for their bills to you and are forced to
indenture themselves to you for a limited time it is your obligation to not
only support him but his entire family as well and to never have him do any
demeaning work- as Rashi explains carrying your stuff after you or helping you
put on your shoes. You have to treat him as any other worker that is in your
factory, despite the fact that you are paying for his whole families’ entire
upbringing. No union would be able to pull off those terms.

You can only hire him for a certain amount of years until the Yovel
comes and must assist him in gaining redemption. In fact you are obligated to
redeem him from a non-Jewish owner. Get that? A Jew is obligated to take his
hard earned money and provide and raise up and redeem even a Jew that has left
his faith and has gotten himself into trouble. I am forbidden from turning my
eye and from closing my wallet. I am forbidden not only from ever demeaning him
but I am obligated to restore him to his former dignity. These laws don’t make
sense unless you understand that they were given by Hashem. That the function
of these mitzvos is to understand that

“the children of Israel are servants to
Me, whom I have taken of the Land of Egypt- I am Hashem”.

Our Parsha as well discusses idolatry the obligation to eradicate
it, to have awe of the Temple, to observe the Shabbos, all of these ‘religious
laws’ come with the death penalty. There is no religious freedom or liberty in
the Torah society. Because it is not about social justice. It is about Divine
justice. It is about bringing the world to a recognition that it has a Creator.
That the Jew has a Master that he dedicates his entire life to listening to.
That this Master is kind, is just, loves His children has created the world for
their benefit. That these mitzvas were not made up by popular votes, by Primaries
or Supreme courts or through any type of man-made democratic system. Rather
they were given to us on Sinai. It’s not something you’ll get in a Poli Sci
class, rather in a Poli Sinai class. Those are the elections that will count.

In our daily Amida/Shemona Esrei prayer and blessings when
ask Hashem for our personal requests, He is described as many different things.
He is Holy. He bequeaths knowledge. He is gracious and forgiving. He is our Redeemer
and the Healer of the sick. Yet there is only one blessing that Hashem is
described as loving something. In the blessing that we ask for the return to
our former leadership, where we ask Hashem to remove from us the grief and
despondency of that void of a Divine spiritual God driven leadership. We
conclude the blessing with ‘Blessed are You Hashem the King who loves
Charity and Justice.’ This blessing is the prelude to the blessing of the
request for the great shofar to return the exiles back home. It is the prelude
the return of Hashem to Jerusalem, the city he has already returned us to, but
yet has to come back to. Hashem loves the principles of charity and justice
that He gave to the world through his leaders, because it is only when the
fallacies of all the other systems come to the forefront will we be ready to
come back home.

We’re there boys and girls. If you haven’t started turning your
eyes up to heaven and praying that He finally return us to that only system
where His great Name will be recognized and made great in this world. If you
still somehow are trying to fit and find yourself and our values in any of the
political constructs that are out there or in the representation of any of
their proponents or candidates, you’re selling yourselves, the world and Him
short. Since there’s really no one to vote for this year anyways, I have an
idea for the upcoming election. How about filling in God on your ballot. How
about telling the world what- Who we are truly meant to be voting for. What we
are praying for. Who really has our vote. That shouldn’t be harder than writing
in Trump or Hillary. Should it?

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S JEWISH PERSONALITY AND HIS
QUOTES IN HONOR OF THE YARTZEIT OF THE WEEK

“You have friends some will rebuke you and
some will praise you Love the rebukers and hate the praisers for the rebukers
will bring you to the next world and the praisers will take you out of this
world”

“‘When a man comes into the world his hands
are clenched tight as if to say that the entire world is mine- I will inherit
it. And when he leaves the world, his hands are open wide as if to say I have
not inherited anything from this world”

“Even a non-Jew that studies Torah is like a
Kohen Gadol/High Priest”

“He who studies Torah and does not teach has
desecratd the Name of Hashem.”

"A man should always be accustomed to
saying all that Hashem does is for good”

Rabbi Meir Baa;HaNes– 14th
of Iyar 121 CE this Sunday

RABBI MEIR BAAL HANEIS (Rabbi Meir, Master
of Miracles) was a great sage who lived in the Mishnaic era. The name Meir,
meaning "Illuminator" in Hebrew, was given to him because he
“enlightened” the eyes of scholars in Torah study and to know the light of G-d.
The epithet ‘Baal Haneis’ means "the master of miracles” which was added
due to the wondrous miracles that G-d performs in his merit.

At the end of 66 CE, there
was a Jewish revolt in Judea stemming from Greek and Jewish religious tension.
According to the Talmud, Nero Claudius Caesar (37-68 CE) fifth and last Roman
Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, wanted to lead his army into battle
against Jerusalem. He wished to determine if he would be successful in
destroying her. He therefore shot arrows in all four directions. Miraculously
they all fell towards Jerusalem. He took this as a heavenly sign that he would
be victorious. He then asked a passing child to repeat the Scriptural verse he
had learned that day. The child quoted a verse in Ezekiel 25-14 "I will
take revenge of Edom, through the Jewish people". Nero became terrified.
He said to himself, "G-d wants me to destroy His House and later avenge
Himself in me!" Nero decided to flee to Rome and convert to Judaism to
avoid Divine retribution. Vespasian was then dispatched in his stead to put
down the rebellion. Jewish tradition reports that Rabbi Meir was a descendant
of Emperor Nero.

Rabbi Meir studied under
Rabbi Yishmael and then under Rabbi Akiva. He also studied under the famed
scholar Elisha ben Avuya, who after becoming a heretic, renouncing the the
concepts of Divine reward and punishment and becoming extremely anti-religious the
rabbis of the Talmud refrained from relating teachings in his name and referred
to him as Acher, the "Other One". Rabbi Meir however continued
studying under him while at the same time using their relationship to implore
him incessantly to repent his ways and return to the fold. When Elisha was on
his deathbed Rabbi Meir was there and one last time begged him to repent. Elisha
asked "After all I have done, will I still be accepted? Rabbi Meir said:
Is it not written: You return a person to dust (Psalm 90:3) which means, even
to the point that a life is ground to the dust one can return. Elisha ben Abuya
cried and died. Rabbi Meir rejoiced and said "It seems to me that my
teacher departed in a moment of repentance". When they buried him, a
fierce fire came and began to burn his grave. They came and told Rabbi Meir:
Your teacher's grave is burning. Rabbi Meir went out and spread his Tallis over
Elisha's grave and prayed. The fire died down. When later generations
questioned how it was permitted for Rabbi Meir to continue studying under
Elisha even after he had soured, the response was given that Rabbi Meir was
very great and he was able to take only the good and reject the bad.

Rabbi Meir became one of the
greatest of the Tannaim. There are three hundred and thirty five laws in the
Mishnah that are explicit quotes in the name of Rabbi Meir. In addition there
is a rule in the Talmud that all anonymously authored opinions in the Mishnah
are attributed to Rabbi Meir. One of the sages of the Talmud, Rav Acha Bar
Chanina said There is no question that Rabbi Meir was the greatest scholar of
his generation. Nevertheless, the final Halacha is not necessarily established
according to his opinion because he was so brilliant, the greatest sages of his
generation could not plumb the depth of his great genius and wisdom."

Rabbi Meir was married to
Beruriah, one of the few women cited in the Talmud and famous for her great
brilliance and wisdom. She was the daughter of Rabbi Chananiah ben Teradyon,
one of the ten Jewish leaders martyred by the Roman Government. The Roman
Government ordered that Rabbi Chanina and his wife be executed for teaching
Torah publicly. They also decreed that their younger daughter (Beruriah's
sister) be placed in a brothel. Beruriah asked Rabbi Meir to save her sister.
Rabbi Meir took a bag of gold coins and went to the brothel disguised as a
Roman horseman. He offered the money as a bribe to the guard. The guard
replied, "When my supervisor comes, he will notice the prisoner missing
and kill me." Rabbi Meir replied that when you are in danger - say the
words, "God of Meir - answer me" and you will be saved." The
guard wondered, "How can I be guaranteed that this will save me?"
Rabbi Meir replied, "Look! There are man-eating dogs over there. I will go
over to them and you will see for yourself." Rabbi Meir walked towards the
dogs. They ran over to tear him apart. He cried out "God of Meir - answer
me!", and the dogs retreated. The guard was thus convinced and handed over
the girl to Rabbi Meir. When the brothel prison supervisors came, the guard
bribed them with the money. Eventually, the money was exhausted, and the guard's
deed was publicized. The government arrested the guard and sentenced him to
death by hanging. When they tied the rope around his neck he cried out
"God of Meir - answer me!" The rope tore and the guard escaped.

Rabbi Meir suffered great
personal tragedy. He had two sons and a daughter. When his two dear sons
suddenly passed away on the Sabbath, his wife Beruriah covered them and hid the
news from him so as not to sadden him on this holy day. After the Sabbath she
asked him, "What if someone gave me a great treasure to hold for him and
he now demands that I return it, must I give it back?" "Of
course" he replied, not realizing what she was leading up to. She took his
hand and led him into the room where the two dead children lay. When she
removed the cover and he realized the great tragedy, he began to cry. She
confronted him "Didn't you just say that we must return the treasure to
its owner? G-d gave them to us and now G-d took them back. May His name be
blessed". In fact, you my dear husband taught that "one is required
to bless G-d for the bad just like for the good." (Talmud, Berachot 48).

Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis passed
away on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar. He is buried on the shores of
Lake Kinneret, only a short distance from the city of Tiberius. The grave of
Rabbi Meir Baal Haneis is one of the holiest sites in the Jewish world and
thousands of people flock there to pray for their salvation.

Before his death, Rabbi Meir
Baal Haneis promised - as his legacy to all generations - that he will
personally intercede in Heaven, on behalf of anyone in distress, who will give
charity to the poor in Israel in his memory.

To this very day it has been
a sacred and hallowed tradition for Jews, in crisis or need, to recite the
words “God of Meir - answer me!” while giving Tzedakah. Countless stories
abound of men and women who during a personal crisis, experienced miraculous
help when they gave charity to this holy fund in memory of Rabbi Meir Baal
Haneis.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q. Harun al-Rashid belongs to the dynasty of:

A.Umayya

B. Abbas

C. Fatimids

D. Ayyubids

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL RASHI OF THE WEEK

Ok this is not me. This is Rashi talking. OK
this is not Rashi talking this is his understanding of the simple understanding
of the Torah. OK it’s not only Rashi its in fact a Gemara, the Midrash and
other sources. Pretty much it’s Hashem. So don’t blame me. I’m just the
messenger. I’m just underlining a Rashi that I’m sure you read this week as you
reviewed the weekly Parsha. Don’t blame me.

The verse in this week’s Parsha says as
follows

“I
am Hashem Your God that I took you out of the land of Egypt to give you the
land of Canaan to be for you as Elokim-God”

Rashi explains-

‘That anyone who lives in Eretz Yisrael I am
for Him God, and he ho leaves it is as if he is worshiping other gods.’

Seemingly Rashi is noting the fact that the
Torah enunciates the idea that I am Hashem your God is not a separate notion
That Hashem took us out of Egypt merely to be our God. Rather he took us out to
give us the land of Israel because only there can I be your God. If you live
there I am your God if you don’t or worse leave there for the benefits and
alternative ‘benefits’ and are willing to give up on that notion of Hashem
being your god that can only happen in Israel-the you are no different than an
idolator. The Talmud in Kesuvot calls someone who lives outside of the land is
compared to someone who ‘has no god’. Ouch! Don’t blame me it’s the Rabbis in
the Talmud.

Our
sages write even more harshly then Rashi the Tosefta in Avodah
Zarah (5:2) that states as follows: “One should dwell in Israel even
in a city where the majority of the population are idolaters rather than in the
Diaspora in a city inhabited completely by Jews. This teaches us that living in
Israel is equivalent to all the commandments of the Torah.” Meaning even if one’s
Torah is greater, even if one’s education might better, certainly if it is only
ones comfort level or livelihood is better. It is better to live in Eretz
Yisrael rather than Chutz La’Aretz- the Diaspora- despite the fact that it
might be halachically permissible to leave for those reasons. The proof the
Talmud brings to this is that King David who left Israel to flee for his life
referred to himself as an idolator for doing so, despite that it was certainly permissible
to do so. Incidentally the opposite is true as well that despite the fact that
one is living in a city that is full of gentiles, where there is so much danger
of assimilation and connecting with them and losing one’s faith it is better to
be in that situation then to live in the greatest Torah community in America,
in the Diaspora, in a country where you are considered as if you have no god.
That’s not me talking it’s a Rashi, it’s our sages, it’s the Torah. If you don’t
get it. Maybe you don’t have a god. What did you think when you learned this
Rashi? This Pasuk? I’m just asking. I would never offer my opinion…

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL HISTORICAL EVENT THAT
HAPPENED ON THIS DATE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-

14th of Iyar May 11th 1960- Capture of
Adolph Eichman Y’MSH-Agents of Israel's "Mossad" (Secret
Service) captured Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, chief architect of Hitler’s
iniquitous “Final Solution,” in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Eichmann was in charge
of all transportation required for the shipment of Jews to the extermination
camps and implementing the "final solution" i.e. the extermination of
the Jews. The height of his career was reached in Hungary, 1944, when he
managed to transport 400,000 Jews to the gas chambers in less than five weeks, r”l. After
the war, Eichmann fled to Argentina and lived under the assumed name of Ricardo
Klement for ten years until Israeli Mossad agents abducted him on May 11, 1960
and smuggled him out of the country to stand trial in Yerushalayim for
his crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Eichmann was captured through the efforts of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal and
the Israeli Mossad . He was put on trial in Israel, which was broadcast
worldwide and featured the wrenching testimony of over one hundred witnesses,
many of them Holocaust survivors. During the four months of the trial, Eichmann
took the stand and used the defense that he was just obeying orders. "Why
me," he asked. "Why not the local policemen, thousands of them? They
would have been shot if they had refused to round up the Jews for the death
camps. Everybody killed the Jews."
Eichmann was found guilty on all counts of crimes against humanity, convicted
and sentenced to death by hanging. He was hanged at Ramleh Prison, on 27 Iyar
5722 - May 31, 1962, the only capital punishment ever carried out in Israel.
His body was cremated and ashes scattered at sea, so that no nation would serve
as Eichmann's final resting place.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S POLITICAL JOKES OF THE WEEK

What is the difference between Capitalism and
Socialism? Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man…Socialism is the
exact opposite

The word 'politics' is derived from the word
'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking
parasites'.

Here’s some great Ronald Reagan lines

“Politics is supposed to be the second oldest
profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to
the first.”

“The government's view of the economy could be
summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving,
regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it'.

“'I have left orders to be awakened at any
time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting'.

Other great Politic Quotes

Politicians are people who, when they see
light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes
from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each
from the other.

And finally one last Obama joke

Barak Obama is out jogging one morning,
notices a little boy on the corner with a box. Curious he runs over to the
child and says, 'What's in the box sonny?' To which the little boy says,
'Kittens, They're brand new kittens.'

A couple of days later Obama is running with
his colleague George Bush and he spies the same boy with his box just ahead. Obama
says to Bush, 'Watch this.' and they both jog over to the boy with the box.

Obama says, 'Look in the box George, isn't
that cute? Look at those little kittens. Hey son, tell my friend George what
kind of kittens they are.'

The boy replies, 'They're Republicans.'

'What?' Obama says, 'I jogged by here the
other day and you said they were Republicans. What's changed? 'Well, 'the child
says, 'Their eyes are open now.'

:**************

Answer is B – I don’t even stand on a chance on this question. I don’t
even know if I did when I was studying for my exams. But certainly not now.
After I passed my exam I deleted all information that I knew I would never need
again. I have a small brain and a limited amount of space and frankly I don’t care about the names or figures of
all of the various arab dynasties and I still don’t. So I googled the answer
for those of you that care and for my daughter Rivka who started cheating every
Erev Shabbos and checking the E-Mail to see the answer to the weekly question.
So that she knows it and ‘wins’ by the Shabbos table each week. But I’m on to
her. I figure she doesn’t read this part of the answer so I guess we’ll find
out this week. I guess I’ll find out if any of you read this far as well. If
you do I’m impressed. Kol HaKavod

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About Me

Hi, thanks for popping in. I am a recent Oleh. My wife Aliza and children Shani, Yonah, Rivkah, Elka and Tully recently moved to Karmiel Israel from Seattle Washington where we used to have a little Shul in our home the West Seattle TLC (Torah Learning Center). I have been involved in Jewish educational outreach for over 15 years. Originally a Detroiter, we have been lucky enough to live in Midwood New York, Des Moines Iowa, Norfolk Virginia and Seattle. I'm just a down to earth guy who would rather talk in the front of the shul than the back so i became a Rabbi where that becomes your job. I love Jews,Stories, Israel, and chulent. Recently we opened up the Young Israel of Karmiel and look forward to greeting the many North American and Anglo Olim who will join us here in the beautiful Galil.
Please comment away I thrive on your input. Thanks!

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